Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.53

c7.53

The subject matter of Vas. likewise resembles that of the Dharmasūtras and includes *inter alia* the sources and the jurisdiction of law, the duties and the origin of the four castes, specially the Brahmans, the law of hospitality, impurity and the removal thereof, laws about women, the daily duties, the four Āśramas, the law of marriage, the obligations of the hermit and the ascetic, the position of the fathers of families and Snātakas, the study of the Veda, the rules of salutation, restrictions about food, excommunication out of the caste, legal procedure, the law of inheritance, the mixed castes, duties of a king, public and private penances and charitable gifts and institutions. Moreover, the rules of Vas. are in many cases of a particularly primitive character; thus in 1, 28 ff. he enumerates like Āp. only six forms of marriage instead of the orthodox eight, but designates the purchase of women as the "form of human marriage" (mānuṣa-vivāha).